Best Professional Photo Editing Software Mac

Best Professional Photo Editing Software Mac Average ratng: 4,8/5 4838 reviews
  1. Serif Affinity Photo. Another best photo editing software, especially for Mac users is Serif Affinity Photo. All the main camera file formats are compatible with this photo editing software. It is easy to use for its too many nifty features. This photo software contains a wide range of high-end filters that include distortion, tilt-shift, blurs.
  2. Jun 09, 2020  In this guide, we’ll cover the 19 best photo editing software capable of meeting the needs of all types of photographers. This includes all tools ranked and compared to include: The best free photo editors. The best tools for Mac. The top photo editing picks for PC and Windows. The easiest photo software for beginners.

Best Free Photo Editing Software for Mac 2020. GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program and is one of the best free photo editor apps that you'll get. It comes with everything that a premium software contains and features which a professional photographer will appreciate. Breath-taking is the word that can be best used to.

When it comes to your website, images are incredibly important. Whether you’re a photographer wanting to show off their portfolio or a business owner that wants to add a personal touch to their site, photos can add visual interest, help you tell your story, and otherwise enhance your website.

But, before you upload them to your site, you need to edit the photos so that they match the look and feel you want your brand to portray. You also need to edit the photos to ensure that all images have the same dimensions for a more unified look.

On top of that, editing your images before uploading them to your site, will help reduce the file size which will have a positive impact on your site loading times and in turn help you rank better in search engines.

All of this brings us to today’s topic: the best photo editing software in 2020. With the proper photo editing software you will not only be able to crop the images to the right dimensions and ensure the file size won’t slow down your site but you will also be able to adjust the lighting and highlight the key elements in your photos.

Below, you will find the best photo editing software that’s available in 2020. They range from free to paid and most of them can be used on Mac, Windows, and Linux computers.

Best Photo Editing Software for Photographers (both PC and Mac compatible)

Photoshop

When it comes to photo editing software, Adobe Photoshop is usually the first program that comes to mind. It is a complex program that offers features such as non-destructive editing, layers, filters and blend modes, and the healing tool among others.

Photoshop lets you easily adjust the brightness and contrast of your photos, adjust the levels, fine-tune the shadows and highlights, and so much more.

It is available for Mac and Windows computers and you can get it as a part of Adobe’s CC subscription. You can purchase a single app subscription for Photoshop only, a subscription for Photoshop and Lightroom as well as a subscription for the entire suite of Adobe’s apps.

WP Paint — WordPress Image Editor

The WP Paint plugin is an image editing plugin for WordPress that has over 1000 active installations and 5-star ratings. It’s a browser based HTML5 image editor that allows you to easily edit images in your WordPress library.

The plugin has an intuitive desktop-like interface and supports features such as layer management, the ability to add custom text to images, apply blur effects, adjust image brightness or contrast, and more.

Lightroom

Lightroom is another favorite among photographers and a part of Adobe’s suite of programs. Where Lightroom shines is its ability to batch edit the photos which is a huge time-saver when you’re working with hundreds of photos.

Lightroom makes it easy to organize all your photos: you can add keywords and your own metadata. Additionally, Lightroom comes with face detection which helps with photo organization.

You will also find several presets and filters that you can apply to your photos and save time during the edit process and there are hundreds of presets available online that you can download.

Lightroom is available on Mac and Windows computers and you can get it as a single subscription, a subscription in combination with Photoshop or as part of Adobe CC library subscription.

If you want to run the full file system analysis, try the free Mac Duplicates Finder app. If you want to delete duplicate photos Mac Photos app stores, get Photos Duplicate Cleaner. Some of the high-rated cleaners with duplicate cleaning features also include Gemini 2: The Duplicate Finder and Clean My Mac. Will a software update delete my photos on mac. Jan 13, 2020  Update your Mac to the latest version of macOS. If you use iPhoto or Aperture to manage your photos and videos. If you want to delete photos from both the album and your collection, press Command-Delete. Edit your photos. Photos includes powerful, easy-to-use editing tools. You can apply adjustments to your photos and make them look exactly.

Affinity Photo

If you’re not a fan of the subscription model, Affinity Photo is a great contender. It supports RAW and HDR editing and comes equipped with the tools and features that you’re used to seeing in Photoshop.

When working with photos, you can adjust the white balance, brightness, saturation, and apply a variety of filters. You can also stitch panoramic images, batch process multiple files, and more. Keep in mind that similarly to Photoshop, Affinity Photo also offers graphics and vector editing tools in the same application.

Affinity Photo is available for Mac, Windows, and iOS devices for a one-time payment which includes lifetime updates.

Gimp

Gimp is a free and open-source program that comes with features rivaling those found in Photoshop. In fact, Gimp is often quoted as the free Photoshop alternative. It can edit photos and includes tools such as layers and non-destructive editing, retouching and creative compositions.

Gimp includes all the standard photo editing tools such as brightness, saturation, curves, and more. You can also install third-party plugins which add even more features to Gimp.

Gimp works on Windows, Linux, and Mac computers. It’s a great solution if you’re on a budget but still want to be able to edit or enhance your photos.

Capture One

Capture One is a RAW photo editing software that supports all major camera brands. As far as the features go, Capture One is on par with other programs on this list.

You can adjust brightness, contrast, levels, curves, apply filters, and perform other standard photo adjustments. What makes it stand out is the ability to customize the interface to your liking and built-in Latitude Styles which serve as filters that enhance and transform your photos in a single click.

Capture One is available for Mac and Windows and you can purchase a perpetual license or opt for one of their subscription plans.

DxO PhotoLab

DxO Photo Lab touts itself as the photo editing software made by photographers for photographers. It offers the standard processing and correction tools as you’d expect from a photo editing software and it supports RAW editing from all major camera brands, except for Fuji.

Notable features include precise adjustments thanks to U Point selection assistance technology, optical correction modules, and denoising technology. DxO Photo Lab also supports the ability to switch between manual and automatic modes for all automatic features.

This program is available for Mac and Windows computers and doesn’t require a subscription model. It can be bought for a one-time payment fee.

ON1 Photo RAW

ON1 Photo RAW is a photo editor and a photo organizer rolled into one. It positions itself as the replacement for Lightroom and Photoshop, allowing you to edit, organize, and process your photos in the same app instead of switching between two different programs.

The program comes with all the standard features as well as batch processing and it also includes built-in presets so you can easily apply several adjustments to your photos all at once. RAW processing, multi-layer compositing, and focus-stacking are all included in ON1 Photo RAW.

The program is available for both Mac and Windows and can be bought for a one-time fee which includes a perpetual license.

Luminar

Luminar is a popular choice among photographers because it can be bought for a one-time payment rather than a subscription model. What’s more, you can use it as a standalone program or as a plugin for Lightroom or Photoshop.

Professional Photo Editing Software Free

Luminar includes built-in filters which can enhance your photos in a single click and you can also fine-tune each filter to your needs. Luminar comes with human-aware technology which recognizes people automatically and applies adjustments selectively for more realistic results.

In addition to the features above, you will also find healing, cloning, and retouching tools, AI-powered sky enhancer, the ability to add volumetric lightning, and more.

Luminar is available for both Mac and PC.

Alien Skin Exposure

Alien Skin Exposure is a photo editor and organizer that lets you enhance your photos with powerful tools as well as streamline your photo editing workflow.

A few notable features include improved lightning and shadows tools, fully adjustable light effects, transform tools, and smart collections. On top of that, Alien Skin Exposure comes with built-in presets and support for RAW editing.

It’s available for Mac and Windows computers.

Fotor

Fotor is an online photo editing app which means you can use it no matter which OS you’re using. Fotor claims to be the online version of Photoshop and offers tools which allow you to easily adjust color, size, light, and more.

It’s also equipped with photo retouching tools such as healing, increasing radiance, highlights, and more. Fotor has built in effects so you can easily improve the look of your photos instead of applying adjustments manually and one by one.

On top of the online app, Fotor is available for Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android. It offers a monthly or an annual subscription.

ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate

ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate is a photo editing and organizing software with support for RAW editing. A standout feature is the facial recognition which helps you name and tag your images for faster searching.

You can easily apply all the standard adjustments such as white balance, levels, curves, and more. ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate also makes it easy to color-grade your images with built-in LUT presets and use layer editing to achieve individual adjustments and effects.

The program is available for Windows computer as a one-time payment which gives you a year of updates. Monthly and annual subscriptions are also available.

Pixlr online photo editor

Pixlr is an online photo editor software that can be used in your browser and therefore on any operating system.

It has an intuitive interface and makes it easy to adjust colors, image details, and apply various effects to your photos. Pixlr also supports retouching operations so you can easily remove unwanted objects, blemishes, and clone items.

You can edit the images for free but it’s worth mentioning that there is a paid version of the app that comes with a large stock photo library and support for PSD and Sketch files.

Darktable

Darktable is a free and open-source photo editor that can be used on Windows, Mac, and Linux computers. It includes support for RAW and non-destructive editing and comes with all the basic image operations such as colour correction, level adjustments, filters, and more.

In addition to that, Darktable makes it easy to add watermarks to your images and perform split-toning operations. It supports keywords and tags so you can easily organize your library.

Best Photo Editing Software for Photographers (PC only)

PaintShop Pro Ultimate

PaintShop Pro Ultimate is a feature-rich photo editing software that doesn’t require a subscription. It’s a one-time payment which makes it another attractive alternative to Photoshop. It’s available for Windows computers.

PaintShop Pro Ultimate comes with features that include the ability to instantly transform any photo into an eye-catching animation and correct photos and restore details with adjustments such as color, saturation, white balance, and more. It’s worth mentioning that the program comes with dozens of textures, backgrounds, and brushes to choose from and it also includes AI enhanced presets which are sure to take your photos to the next level.

You can edit RAW images directly and the program also supports HDR editing. On top of that, you can easily edit your 360° photos and apply one-touch fixes to any photo.

Best Photo Editing Software for Photographers (Mac only)

Pixelmator Pro

Pixelmator Pro is a Mac-only photo editor that lets you resize and enhance your photos. It includes tools which support non-destructive editing, balance and level adjustments, and various colour adjustments.

You can also use Pixelmator Pro for digital painting and basic graphics editing with tools such as shapes, quick selection, drawing tools, and more.

Pixelmator Pro is available as a one-time purchase from the App Store.

Final Thoughts — What photo editing software should you use?

Finding the right photo editing software for your needs is no easy task but the above list should point you in the right direction.

If you like taking photos and making them better by using image editors, why not look into how to sell your photos online and maybe earn up to $120/image sold? Let people enjoy your work while also getting paid for it.

Once all your photos are edited, upload them to your site and then take advantage of a gallery plugin like Modula to display your photos in a visually appealing way. Modula makes it easy to create your own unique gallery layouts with a simple drag and drop editor and allow you to add videos from YouTube and Vimeo to your galleries. On top of that, you can easily integrate your galleries with social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest.

Best Professional Photo Editing Software Mac Free

What’s your photo editing software of choice?

Let us know in the comments below!

  • January 02, 2020
  • 18 min to read

Most free photo editors available on the App Store are quite basic, offering just a limited number of filters and allowing you to easily and quickly liven up your photos before posting them on social media.

But if you’re an aspiring or professional photographer, you probably need a more powerful app with a broader set of tools to use your creativity to the fullest. Besides, you probably use your Mac for photo editing because working on a large screen makes it possible to adjust the slightest details.

1. Apple’s Photos (Built-in app)

Apple’s Photos app is included for free on all recently released Macs. It does a good job at organizing your photos, but its collection of photo enhancement tools leaves much to be desired. Hopefully, our selection of the best free programs for photo editing on Mac will help you choose the right app to suit all your creative needs.

2. Luminar (7 days trial)

Luminar is another full-featured photo editor that’s popular with both Mac and Windows users. It can work as a standalone app as well as a plugin for such popular programs as Apple Photos.

Luminar uses Artificial Intelligence to enable sophisticated yet quick photo enhancements. Among these AI features are Sky Enhancer, which adds more depth and detail to the sky in your photos while leaving other areas untouched; Accent AI, which analyzes a photo and automatically applies the best combination of different effects to enhance your image; and Sun Rays, which allows you to place an artificial sun and adjust the lighting to your liking or make the sun rays already in your photo look even more incredible.

Luminar has over 60 filters you can apply to your photos to enhance them in a moment. Luminar also provides a set of powerful tools for cropping, transforming, cloning, erasing, and stamping, along with layers, brushes, and many more incredible features. Luminar supports the Touch Bar on the latest MacBook Pro, making photo editing even more effortless and pleasing.

3. Photolemur 3 (Free Version with watermark)

Photolemur is a relative newcomer on the photo editing market but it has all the chances to win the favor of beginner photographers and hobbyists. Running on Artificial Intelligence, Photolemur is a completely automatic photo enhancer, meaning that it does all the editing for you in no time. It has the simplest interface, with only a few buttons and sliders to adjust the enhancement to your liking and view the before and after results.

All you need to do is choose a photo (or a few) that you want to improve, drag and drop or import them using the Import button, and let the program make enhancements. After it’s done, you can compare the edited version with the original image by using the before–after slider and, if you want, adjust the skin tone or even enlarge the eyes using additional sliders. Pretty easy, huh?

Photolemur also offers a number of impressive styles to touch up your photos and give them a sophisticated and professional look. With this app, you don’t need to stuff your head with photo editing nuances and terms. Just run Photolemur and watch the magic happen!

4. Aurora HDR (14 days trial)

As you probably can tell from the name, Aurora HDR is designed to help photographers enhance their HDR photos, making them even more detailed and beautiful. It’s an ideal tool for editing your photos, with an extensive collection of more than 20 tools including details, tone, mapping, color, glow, and vignette. Each tool has its unique selection of controls to adjust its effects.

Aurora HDR enables you to work with brushes, layers, and masks, and provides a number of automatic AI tools for recognizing and removing noise, enhancing colors, lighting, and details, improving clarity, and adding contrast to dull areas while leaving other areas untouched.

10 Best Photo Editing Software

Aurora HDR does a great job dealing with difficult lighting situations and creating full-of-life images while being easy to use.

5. Pixelmator (Trial 30 Days)

Pixelmator is a photo enhancer beloved by many Mac users, as it offers a good combination of a modern and simple interface, the ability to work on multiple layers, and powerful features that take photo editing to a whole new level. With so many editing tools, brushes, and effects, you can enhance your photos to your liking. You can choose between two versions of Pixelmator – standard and pro – depending on your needs. The standard version is great for basic photo editing with its selection of essential tools and filters, while the pro version is packed with extra brushes, tools, and effects that let you push your creativity to new boundaries. You can decide which version is suitable for you according to what features you’re looking for in a photo editing app.

6. Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020 (Trial link)

Photoshop Elements isn’t as affordable as other photo enhancers for beginner photographers. But luckily there’s a trial version available, so you can check it out before deciding whether this app is worthy of your money. Photoshop Elements acquired many powerful features from Photoshop, only Elements is simplified for amateur photographers and enthusiasts. It includes a good number of effects and filters, plus automated editing options for improving lighting, color balance, and exposure, and even opening closed eyes and reducing the effects of camera shake.

Best Professional Photo Editing Software Mac Free

In addition to all of these awesome features, Photoshop also offers editing modes for beginners, intermediate users, and experts. Beginners will probably prefer Quick mode, as it focuses on essential tools to quickly enhance your photos by improving color, lighting, and other basic settings. Guided mode provides intermediate users with step-by-step guidance with more professional features like artistic effects, skin tone correction, and background replacement. Expert mode gives you full access to the app’s really powerful editing features and is ideal for creating stunning images.

7. Affinity Photo (Free Trial)

Affinity Photo’s interface may seem overwhelming at first, especially for novices, but when you come to grips with it you’ll find that the app is just what you’ve been looking for. Its numerous professional tools, effects, and filters encourage you to get creative with your photos. Among the coolest features Affinity Photo has to offer is a before and after view to compare the original photo with its edited version.

Affinity Photo works with 15 file types, including common ones like PDF, PSD, JPG, and GIF as well as some less popular ones. The app amazes with its abundance of basic and top-notch editing tools, allowing you to tweak your photos using all possible kinds of instruments. Affinity Photo allows you to edit HDR photos, apply artistic filters and effects, play with masks and layers, and create breathtaking compositions by combining several images in one. If you find its interface a bit much and are afraid of getting lost in all those advanced tools, you should probably look for something more suitable for your level. But Affinity Photo is worth mastering.

8. Google Photos

Google Photos is a popular cloud storage service for photos and videos. It can’t boast countless masterly tools like other photo enhancers that we review in this article, but it includes some fundamental features like filters, color adjustment sliders, and transformation tools.

Free

Although Google Photos may not be that helpful when it comes to editing photos, it does a pretty good job at storing high-resolution images and videos with 15GB of free online storage, compared to iCloud’s mere 5GB (which you can upgrade to 50GB for a monthly fee). If you’re planning to go on a trip and take plenty of photos, then it might be smart to sign up for Google Photos to use that extra storage space when you come back.

Best Professional Photo Editing Software Mac Compatible

9. PhotoScape X (Free)

A relatively new photo editing app, PhotoScape X has been gaining popularity with many Mac and PC users since its release in 2008. Its interface is simple but unconventional, with a number of tabs running along the top of the window. Each is responsible for a specific stage of editing. The Viewer tab allows you to browse and organize your photos. After you pick a photo, you can switch to the Editor tab, which includes a broad set of instruments, filters, and effects and a useful feature that enables you to compare the adjusted photo with the original.

The next tabs, including the Batch tab, mainly concentrate on editing and renaming multiple photos at once. The GIF tab allows you to easily create an animated GIF from a group of selected photos.

The downside of PhotoScape X is a lack of selection tools, so all changes are applied to the whole image rather than to a selected part.

10. Gimp (Free)

Gimp is a free open-source photo editing app that has been on the market for over 22 years and is available for Windows, Mac, and even Linux. Unlike many free apps, Gimp doesn’t have any ads or in-app purchases. Its grey interface might seem a little old-fashioned and it may be a bit sluggish when it comes to complex effects, though.

Gimp offers a vast collection of advanced tools that hardly any free photo editor can boast. It has numerous enhancement options such as clone and heal brushes, layers and channels, accurate selection tools, a number of transformation instruments, and, of course, color adjustment controls. Gimp is one of the most powerful tools for enhancing photos and is beloved by so many users for its price (free) and versatility. But if you can’t come to grips with Gimp’s interface, it may be worth paying some cash for a more user-friendly program.